Calendar

This was some cool fog a couple of weeks ago, that I caught with the iPhone camera. It's not as beautiful a photo as many of my friends post on FB but it will have to do. We've had a lot of rain, and days that looked like the above.

The calendar has a lot of days marked on it right now, for when entries are opening up for the local spring circuit of sheepdog trials. I'm also watching the sunset times, for when I can get a few extra minutes after work, to get out with the dogs in the daylight. This is sounding like a broken record, I know; but we are getting there finally! :) Hoping that Mercury is out of retrograde, finally as well. That's not normally something that I follow but this month of January has at times, been a very rough one!

Last weekend we had the chance to practice with the dogs in a larger area, again. Spot was good on his first session, driving and a few short gathers. Very nice. On his second turn, however (after a good break) he felt much more tense and ended up busting into the sheep when they accelerated a little bit going downhill. Very frustrating for me. And probably for him as well, otherwise he would not have busted in! I do not think he likes doing that. I set it up again and finally got him to follow the sheep downhill without a problem, at which point I quit. Later, after another break, he pushed sheep through a race, several times up close and personal. He was OK so I stopped there. I'm thinking that Spot and I are nowhere near ready to trial this spring.  If he can't follow behind sheep down a hill driving properly then we would be in big trouble at most of the nearby trials. That makes it easy to decide what to do. :(

Today we got to practice again, and with so much rain there was a lot of standing water. Spot is a bit flummoxed by the sheep who don't want to move off very well due to the water. That is something we will be working on. Since I'm not concerned about trying to get him ready for a trial for now, I am just letting things roll and will try to fill in all of the experiences that he needs to be successful and let the calendar do its thing without us.

Speaking of the calendar, Spot has been here for three years now, as of February 1st.

Ryme was a very good boy today helping me to sort sheep, and feed, and was the all-around chore dog.  I hope the dogs are all very worn out!

Ryme looking cute a couple of weeks ago. Awww.